Diamondbacks Make Changes to Business Side

Before the season ended, Arizona Diamondbacks General Managing Partner Ken Kendrick and CEO Derrick Hall committed to a full evaluation of the organization from the top down. Everyone assumed this meant the baseball operations staff.

This assumption would be partially correct as evidenced by the dismissal of manager AJ Hinch and General Manager Josh Byrnes. This has led to further changes in the coaching staff including the hiring of Kirk Gibson on a permanent basis.

It has not ended there. Today the team announced changes to the business side of the organization. John Fisher who has been with the team since 2007 was promoted to Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales and Marketing.

Fisher has been working in ticket sales for the previous three seasons and will now be tasked with increasing the season ticket fan base as well as working with group sales, suites, and corporate marketing.

The move increases the Diamondbacks focus on combining marketing with ticket sales in order to expand the fan base which appears to have been dwindling over the past couple of years. The move may seem counter-intuitive at first glance.

Why promote an employee when the fan base has been dwindling? The economy and poor on-field performance for the team is widely acknowledged as the reason for the attendance drop off.

During the past three years under Fisher, season ticket renewals were near 80 percent despite a last place finish in each of the past two seasons and perhaps the worst recession in the state’s history.

The Diamondbacks also announced the promotion of Jason Howard to Vice President of Business Development. In this role the Diamondbacks hope to build new revenue streams through partnerships for the regular season as well as the new Spring Training facility in Scottsdale.

The goal of these moves is to bring more synergy between marketing and ticket sales to provide an enhanced fan experience, something the Diamondbacks seem to excel at each season.